Homegrown Happy Valley

Check out our new promotional video put together by one of our interns. Get a taste of what Homegrown Happy Valley is all about, as well as our goals for the future.

“Thank you, it was delicious.”

The compliment was uttered not in a restaurant, but in a South Jersey soup kitchen, which on this particular day was serving split pea soup, spaghetti and sausage, and string beans.

I was lucky enough to work the line last week. I use the word “lucky,” because my mom, a South Jersey resident, had been showing up at the kitchen for a few weeks looking for a way to help out. She bagged a few rolls here, boxed a few meals there, but mostly she and her friends just stood around waiting for a job, which at one point included guarding the bread station (a vital, if boring, task).

I love gluten. I didn’t realize how much-or even what it was, for that matter-until I discovered it was making me sick. Technically speaking, gluten is the protein in wheat, barley and rye. Translation: it’s the stuff that makes food edible. Eliminate this magic ingredient and you often end up with something that merely resembles the food it’s trying to be. Thankfully there are exceptions and some of my favorites are locally sold and produced. Here’s where to find them:

Cools Beans Coffee and Tea: This quaint Bellefonte coffee shop makes flourless goodies. When I last stopped in I bought a bag of peanut butter cookies made from peanut butter, egg and sugar. No flour needed.

Guest blogger Reenie Kuhlman is co-founder of GoodPR, Inc., a communications consulting agency that helps businesses, organizations and people whose mission is to do something good for the world.  Reenie, a mother of two and a lover of all things local, details her experience planning an eco-friendly tailgate with food from Pittsburgh (her hometown) and State College (her favorite tailgating locale).

Time to trade the flip-flips and t-shirts for booties and sweatshirts—make those Nittany Lion sweatshirts. The best part about this weather is the electrified feeling in the air. In Happy Valley you can actually smell the leaves falling from the trees. And that means only one thing: Penn State football. 

Guest blogger Carolyne Meehan–a mom, former English teacher, and supporter of all things local–continues her diary of working on a local farm in exchange for fresh, local produce with Part Two: “You Know it’s Early When You Have to Wake The Farmer.” If you’re just joining in now, check out Part 1 here.

The largest environmental film festival in North America is making its State College debut. ClearWater Conservancy and Appalachian Outdoors are teaming up to bring the “Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival” to Mount Nittany Middle School 7 p.m. June 25th.

State College is one of 90 communities nationwide hosting the festival tour, which aims to inspire local activism. One of the films, “Division Street,” takes a breathtaking look at the wildlife corridors that are attempting to restore a wilderness invaded by cars and roads. (Get ready for grizzly encounters!) The film’s theme will be familiar to many locals–ClearWater Conservancy is attempting to maintain and protect a wildlife corridor in Centre County.

Add Fraser Street Deli (which names all of its sandwiches after local celebs, including former PSU basketball great Amaechi) to the growing list of restaurants touting local ingredients. Pepper ham, salami, capicola and provolone on a freshly baked panini may be the ultimate in carnivore, localvore indulgence.

I’m a careful food shopper. I scrutinize labels and stickers, hunting for clues about where a product comes from and how it was made. I once stood in front of a pile of avocados for ten minutes, trying to choose between the conventional fruit from Mexico and the bruised organic version from California–and wishing my husband’s grandmother would just send more from her tree in Santa Maria. I probably put more thought into those avocados than the car my husband and I purchased a few years ago.

Like many ideas, this one grew from personal experience.

When I moved to State College two years ago, I set out to find the businesses that would turn this community into a place I could call home. I chose a coffee shop that doubled as my new and used book supplier. I met a farmer, joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and turned my husband into a kale eater. And I found a baker whose cupcakes and chocolate mousse cake are more than worth the drive to her house. My quest for quality took me to independent, locally owned businesses from Bellefonte to Boalsburg and Millheim to Port Matilda.